White’s “Man on the Move” tax claim put to the test

Politifact Texas, a joint venture between the Austin American-Statesman and Politifact.com, has taken on the task of truth-testing statements by Texas politicians and political candidates. We will occasionally provide links to their analyses of what is fact and what is fiction here on the Texas Politics blog.

In this post, Politifact Texas has taken on Bill White’s claim in his recent ad, “Man on the Move” that he cut taxes five times while serving as Houston’s mayor. The claim was rated as “Half-True.”

The spot, in which White brands himself “a man on the move,” includes one claim that we earlier rated True, that crime rates in Houston fell to 25-year lows during White’s tenure, from 2004 through 2009. For this article, another claim in the ad piqued our interest, that as mayor, White had ‘cut tax rates five times.’

As support for the statement, White’s campaign pointed us to City of Houston financial records that show the property tax rate dropping in small increments for five straight fiscal years after White took office. (For White’s final budget, the city’s current one, the tax rate did not change from the previous year.)

We wondered how much of a role White played in the rate-cutting.

In Houston, which has a strong-mayor form of government, the annual budget proposal and tax rate originate in the city’s Finance Department, which is part of each mayor’s administration. The 14-member city council can offer amendments to the budget before voting on it, but city Finance Director Michelle Mitchell said that generally, the proposed tax rate doesn’t change.

Barton Smith, a University of Houston economics professor and director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting, said the mayor plays a “dominant role in what’s on the city council’s agenda.”

“To a large extent in Houston, the city council is really dependent on information they obtain from him (the mayor) and his administration, particularly on city finances.”

For those five years, the tax rate dropped from 65.55 cents per $100 in assessed property value when White took office to 63.875 cents. However, in four of those five years, the city adopted a tax rate that still brought in more revenue than it had the year before.